Analytics and screen resolution

[treeman]

Just looking at my stats, and it appears the majority of my visitors are using a screen resolution of 1280 x 800. From this information is it possible to get an idea of what size monitors they're using?

I'm just changing some stuff on my photo cart and trying to work out how best to fit it all in and how it would look on smaller screens etc.

 

[DemiLion]

It's WXGA, and at that res it implies that people are probably viewing from a 13-14" laptop/Mac.

Other than that you can't really tell, apart from saying that they represent roughly 15% of internet users: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution#Computer_Monitors

 

[treeman]

Hmmm... beginning to sound like a "can of worms".

So if your designing a web page, is there a standard size you should design for?

 

[DemiLion]

Base it on the width, not the depth. Take roughly 100px from each side for viewing room and you have a standard of 1080px. You just have to look visually to see how many sites are based around their core presentation being 960-1080px wide to see how well it works - even on a 1920px monitor.

You are basically covering all the options from tablets, through laptops to WUXGA in a format that almost everybody will be comfortable with.

 

[treeman]

Thanks Mark, that makes sense

 

[arad85]

is there a standard size you should design for?

1024 x 768 (old skool safe) or 1366 x 768 (modern safe).

 

[EOS_JD]

What difference does the screen size make? If they are viewing at 1280 x 800 even small screens would be perfectly readable

You don't want to use 1366 x 768 as the person looking at the screen would need to scroll left/right to see the whole page would they not?

 

[Dale_tem]

Most laptops I was looking at are 1368 x 768

1280 x 800 has been replaced by 1368 x 768 as a standard resolution. 768 is the old height (1024 x 768) but they have made it wider to give a 16:9 ratio.

Worldwide

http://gs.statcounter.com/#resolution-ww-monthly-201011-201111

Uk

http://gs.statcounter.com/#resolution-GB-monthly-201011-201111

These days the resolutions go from 1024 - 1920 wide, so almost double and the only sites which look good on all displays are variable width sites IMO

 

[arad85]

You'll find most shopping CMS systems default to 980 pixels wide. Wide enough to fit full width on a 1024 wide screen with enough room to fit a scroll bar down the side.

 

[treeman]

Just to explain further, this is how it looks on a 21.5" screen, and the whole page fits perfectly......

And then I happened to look at it on the lappy and thought oh! it doesn't all fit, so this is how it looks on a 13" screen.

But, as I type this I'm thinking it looks fine even on the smaller screen......just ignore me :bonk:

Thanks everyone

 

[Dale_tem]

The size of the screen has nothing to do with it.

Resolution is the important part, my laptop is 15" and 1920 x 1080 and my desktop is 26" 1920 x 1200. You will not see a huge amount of difference

It looks like the buttons get longer, you may need to adjust the minimum button size, it could be a button and then a repeating image, you just need to adjust the button width so they don't take up so much space on the smaller screen

 

[EOS_JD]

Yip it's all about the resolution. Screen size is not important in the design process